AmbiLearn: Enhancing the Learning Environment for Primary School Education

1. AmbiLearn: Enhancing the Learning Environment for Primary School Education Jennifer Hyndman1, Tom Lunney1 & Paul Mc Kevitt21School of Computing & Intelligent Systems2School of Creative Arts & Technologies University of Ulster, Magee, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland

2. Outline • Aims & Objectives • Background • Related work • AmbiLearn & TreasureLearn • Evaluation of AmbiLearn • Relation to other work • Conclusion & future work

3. Aims & Objectives • Aim: Enhance Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for Primary Schools • Objectives: • Use serious games • Design & Implement AmbiLearn – enhanced VLE • Content neutral game-based approach • Initial evaluation of AmbiLearn

4. Background • Northern Ireland Primary & Secondary schools have C2K network & LearningNI VLE infrastructure • Much of pupil content is static downloadable documents • Children’s primary experience of home computing is playing games (Buckingham & Scanlon, 2003) • Children aged 2-17 enjoy playing games (Downin, 2011)

5. Related work • Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) facilitate catching up on missed lectures/classes, submitting assignments & receiving feedback at any time (Hyndman et al. 2011) • Tools for both formative & summative assessments can lead to improved student learning (Peat & Franklin, 2002, 2011) • Use of video games in the classroom engages & motivates students (Pastore et al. 2010; Rizko et al. 2006) • Three key attributes of games as novelty, competition & dynamic interaction (Dennis et al. 2012)

6. Related work • Games reinforce core subjects • appropriate for standardised test such as InCAS & PIPS • Tool are available for educators to create their own content for activities • e.g. Black Cat Activity Builder range (Science & English worksheets, word search & games) • Feedback to the teacher is provided within activities in the VLE where Quiz information is logged, e.g. the quiz blocks

7. AmbiLearn • Follows principles from both constructivism (Piaget, 1927; Vgotsky, 1962) & behaviourism (Skinner, 1938, Bruner, 2006) • Enhanced VLE with (1) content neutral game, (2) content creation & (3) reporting modules • Game module is generic • Reporting module provides a graphical representation of game data

8. AmbiLearn Architecture

9. AmbiLearn Component user roles

10. Game Module • Generic activities • independent of content until a pedagogical model is ‘plugged-in’ • Game plot & goal • ‘Ambi’, a character stranded on ‘TreasureLearn Island’ • Users collect a total of 6 pieces of their boats to be rescued from TreasureLearn Island • Activities: • AmbiGuess, WordSearch, FactMatch, AmbiJig, AmbiQuiz

11. TreasureLearn Island

12. Content Creation Module • Defines the content for each game-based application • Accepts data entry from an educator & builds the content into an XML file structure assessed by the game module • User friendly interface • forms for input of application data • pedagogical model as output

13. Reporting Module • Displays game data in a graphical format • Implemented with a series of SQL statements that select the appropriate data to display • A Fusion Charts PHP class & compiled SWF charts are implemented to display data as bar charts

14. AmbiLearn Reports

15. AmbiLearn Communication

16. Evaluation of AmbiLearn • Evaluation conducted for 3 Primary School classes • (Teachers = 3, Children = 61) • Teachers – created pedagogical model with their own themes • (The Water Cycle, Vikings & Rainforests) • Children – played AmbiLearn game & completed an evaluation booklet • 98.36% responded ‘yes’ when asked: ‘Did you enjoy playing AmbiLearn?’

17. Evaluation of AmbiLearn • Currently investigating correlations between participants perceptions of activities with their teachers perceptions • (Fun, Enjoyment, Ability, Difficulty) • Teachers reviewing AmbiLearn Reporting Module bar charts for their class reported them as an accurate reflection of class capabilities

18. Relation to other work • Focus is on game-based assessment • Game module is designed as a reusable game with plug-in pedagogical model • Many games developed in educational settings employ static content, e.g. commercial Off-the-shelf (COTS) games • Extends reporting to full class data • Content neutral games are commercially available(e.g. Black Cat Activity Builder ), but do not provide opportunities for user logging

19. Relation to other work • Game module exists as a single application & content is linked as an instance of the application – enables theme instances to be compared with each other • Offers 5 different activities within one game, including multiple presentation of educational content

20. Conclusion & future work • AmbiLearn: enhanced VLE with content neutral game, content creation & reporting modules • Content neutral game-based approach provides a generic game independent of educational content • Initial evaluation results show that perceptions of AmbiLearn from both children & teachers give promising results

21. Conclusion & future work • Data given in the reporting module shows an accurate reflection of class capabilities • Effective Virtual Learning Environment for Primary school Assessment for Learning activities • Future work on full evaluation & data analysis

22. Thank You